Holmes Keeps Title

Truth Is Told After 15 Rounds

May 21, 1985|By Sam Smith, Chicago Tribune.

RENO — Larry Holmes, his mouth bloodied and his left eye nearly swollen shut, staggered Carl ``the Truth`` Williams in the final two rounds Monday night for a unanimous 15-round decision to retain his International Boxing Federation heavyweight title.

The fight was one of the toughest in Holmes` career and gave the 35-year- old champion a 48-0 record, one victory shy of Rocky Marciano`s heavyweight mark. Holmes said he will fight two more times and retire at 50-0. Marciano was the only heavyweight champ to retire unbeaten.

But Monday night`s fight against the unheralded Williams, fighting his 17th pro bout, was much tougher than anyone had figured.

``I am the uncrowned king,`` Williams said. ``It was close. I fought a hell of a fight. I wasn`t really hurt. His right hand never got in. Earlier in the fight he had some right hands. Later on, I blocked everything that was thrown.``

There were no knockdowns in the bout, but Holmes had the challenger in trouble in each of the last two rounds. In the 14th, after Williams began the round with stinging left jabs and a left hook that brought blood from Holmes` mouth, the champion regained control and hammered Williams with powerful rights.

In the final 10 seconds, Holmes landed three whistling rights flush on the challenger`s jaw, and Williams staggered into the ropes as the bell sounded.

Holmes continued the attack in the final round, though his left eye was nearly shut. He rocked Williams with a straight right 20 seconds into the round but could not put away the 25-year-old challenger.

``He was very game. He had a hard left jab,`` Holmes said.

Monday`s fight at the 12,000-seat Lawlor Events Center here was Reno`s first heavyweight title bout since the 1910 clash between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries. But people here, even with the fight blacked out on local TV, seemed unmoved by the occasion.

By Monday, only about 3,000 tickets had been sold and promoters were expecting no more than 6,000 by fight time. They were close: The announced figure was 6,046. Some of that lack of interest was blamed on last week`s events: The initial promoter was disqualified and a lien was placed against the current promoter.

Holmes eventually had to appear in court to assume ultimate responsibility for the purses.

Williams was counting on those distractions to abet his battle plan against the champion. Although standing 6 feet 4 inches and weighing 215 pounds, with a sculptured body, Williams was not known as a strong puncher. The plan of the former schoolyard basketball star, who didn`t take up boxing until he was 20, was to back up Holmes with his quick jab and wear down the 35-year-old champion, the titleholder since he decisioned Ken Norton June 9, 1978.

Williams also was counting on having trained in the mountains above Reno, while Holmes trained in town, to give him a late advantage in wind.

Interestingly, Williams had been saying in the weeks leading up to the fight that he would win because Holmes was too old and too slow, but after Williams` last fight, a 10-round decision over James ``Quick`` Tillis last Oct. 23, the New York challenger said he was ready to fight anyone in the heavyweight division but Holmes. NBC changed his mind, though, when it could not arrange a Holmes-Michael Spinks fight and offered Williams the chance.

Meanwhile, Holmes, a skilled counterpuncher known for his jab, was counting on his `Baby Boom`` plan to take another step toward surpassing Marciano`s record of 49 straight victories without a loss.

While Marciano was criticized toward the end of his career for fighting veterans and over-the-hill former champions, Holmes, who received $2.5 million to $150,000 for Williams, has been censured in the press for his march through the kindergarten of the heavyweight division.

Although his recent challengers have had good records, like Williams`

16-0 with 12 knockouts, they lacked experience. Marvis Frazier, James Smith and David Bey, his last three victims, all fit that category.

There was also talk that Holmes` next carefully chosen opponent, if a deal with light-heavyweight champion Spinks is not possible, would be New Jersey heavyweight and former collegiate football player, Kip Kain (15-1). Holmes is now saying he hopes to win his 50th in a row and leave boxing by Nov. 3, his 36th birthday.

In other Monday bouts, New Yorker Eddie Gregg (22-1) laid claim to a Holmes challenge with a unanimous 10-round decision over Randall ``Tex`` Cobb (25-6), who was knocked down for the first time in his career.

``They can never say Eddie Gregg can`t punch,`` the 30-year-old said after doing what Holmes and punchers like Ernie Shavers couldn`t do--knock down Cobb. Cobb fell from a right hand in the ninth round but was up at six. The free-spirited Cobb, meanwhile, discounted the knockdown, saying, ``Anybody that doesn`t think I get off balance doesn`t have eyes.``

Also, former featherweight and superfeatherweight titleholder Bobby Chacon (56-7) scored an eighth-round knockout of Davey Montana (13-4) in what may have been Chacon`s penultimate fight before going to prison. Chacon was convicted of assaulting his wife and recently violated his probation when he was arrested for reckless driving. At next month`s hearing, a judge could order Chacon to a year in prison.